German Alumni (Present through 2015)
Trevor Kenny (German, 2021) was accepted at multiple German MA programs, and is pursuing an MA in German Studies at the University of Colorado at Boulder. In 2021, he was also selected to participate in the “Deutsch in die Zukunft” seminar run in Leipzig by the American Association of Teachers of German (AATG) including paid travel and accommodations, but he was unable to participate due to teaching obligations at Boulder. He is also a peer advocate at the LGBTQ+ center on the Boulder campus and recently co-organized a museum exhibition on Bauhaus artist Herbert Bayer.
Diane Falk-Romaine (German second BA, 2021) is a professor in the department of music at William Paterson university. She made a generous donation that funds the Diane Falk-Romaine-scholarship for German majors at MSU.
Nichola Phillips (German and Linguistics, 2021) is a Web Classification Analyst at DoubleVerify, where her job interview included reading aloud and translating a German article. Gut gemacht!
Casey Masterson (German, 2021) is pursuing an MA in Library Science at Rutgers University. She is working as a YA Librarian and publishes short stories.
Maddie Meier* (German and Vocal Performance, 2020) is a language and music teacher and performer, including teaching music at the German School in Union, NJ. From her website: “I also love to teach language, as I see many parallels between the study of music and the study of language. I find the main commonality though, is that both areas of study allow us to acquire the huge value of empathy. This is the “why” behind what I do, I ultimately want to promote empathy through my performance and teaching.”
Jeffrey Baker (Geography with Environmental Studies Concentration; German double major, 2016) immediately took on a position after graduation. He has been working at the engineering firm Mott MacDonald for 5 years and is now a project lead specialist working with utility clients that mainly deal with natural gas. He is also completing his MS in Civil Engineering Construction Management at NJIT, to be completed in May 2022. Why study abroad? Jeff credits his time abroad in Austria with gaining more confidence and determination as a person. He finds he has the tenacity to get things done no matter the situation or scenario. Jeff sees these as personality traits that have been invaluable for any professional or personal endeavor he has taken on.
Samson Bosco (Psychology with German Minor, 2019) received two years of 2019-2021 United States Teaching Assistants (USTA) fellowship to teach in Austria. He is currently stateside for a year of work, preparing for the German Praxis exam, and planning to apply to teaching positions in Graz.
Haide Contla* (German, 2019) received two years of 2019-2021 United States Teaching Assistants (USTA) fellowship administered by Fulbright Austria. She is currently living and working in Austria. In 2021, she became an administrative assistant at Hudson County Community College.
Noelle Park (German and Art History, 2018) is completing her MA in Art History at NYU, with graduation in May 2022. She has worked at the Montclair Art Museum, the Johannes Vogt Gallery in NYC, and the Visual Arts Center of NJ. Since 2021 also worked as a Visitor Experience Assistant at the Newark Museum of Art.
Noelle Ruta (German, 2018) is currently pursuing an MA in German Translation at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. She has worked as a German teacher in multiple settings and is currently a language coach. She is owner of The Language Addict German Tutoring and Mentoring and she runs the blog The Language Addict. In 2021, Noelle was awarded a highly selective paid travel stipend to participate in the professional pedagogy seminar in Leipzig entitled “Mit Deutsch in die Zukunft,” organized and funded by the American Association of Teachers of German (AATG).
Andrew Dollberg (German, 2018) completed two years teaching English to Austrian high school students with the USTA program. He is currently positioning himself for a career in education in NJ.
Natascha Komarnicki (German and Spanish, 2018) has worked as a teaching assistant at the German School of Union County and has substituted in 5th grade classrooms in North Bergen, NJ.
Katie Kreutz (German, 2018) is an international credential analyst at World Education Services in NYC, where she was in 2021 promoted to Knowledge Analyst. Much of her work involves researching higher education institutions in German.
Joseph Tornquist (Violin Performance Major, German Minor, 2018) completed an MA in Violin Performance at MSU. He worked as a marketing and development intern at The Montclair Orchestra and in 2021 joined the faculty of the Newark School of the Arts.
Kyra Wyllie (German and Psychology, 2018) completed two years with the United States Teaching Assistants in Austria (USTA) full-year fellowship to teach in Austria, first in Graz and then in Schönbrunn (with her Austrian fiancé!). In 2021, she traveled in Spain, Slovakia, Hungary, and Poland before landing an internship at the United Nations in the Human Resources and Management Department. In 2022, she continued to explore places like Budapest and Sardinia. She now works for the American NGO Apex Social, which brings German/Austrian Caregivers to help families with special needs in the US and Australia. She is a talent recruiter and uses German every day.
Awije Bahrami (German and General Humanities, 2017) worked as a program intern at the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD) academic exchange organization, and is currently pursuing an MA in International Studies in Bamberg, Germany. She is a Progressive Party member of the Studentischer Konvent Student Parliament of Uni Bamberg.
John Costello* (German and International Business, 2017) was offered both a full-year Congress-Bundestag fellowship to Germany and a full-year United States Teaching Assistants in Austria (USTA) fellowship upon graduation. During his two years with USTA in Austria, he also completed an MA in Computer Science at the University of Vienna. Since 2021 he has been a software engineer at Atlassian, where he works on the collaboration tool Trello (also very popular in Germany). He appreciates the intersection between math, programming, and constant problem solving, enjoys world travel, and is learning other modern languages in his spare time.
Ryan Sondermeyer* (German and Linguistics, 2017) is a German teacher at Pompton Lakes High School.
Kim Toich* (German, minor in Business, 2017) is an international Credential Analyst Team Lead at World Education Services in NYC.
Alice Creviston (German and History, 2016) completed an MA in International Relations at George Washington University and is currently working as a Museum Technician at the Martin Van Buren Historic Site in NY State, where she composes museum expositions and performs research. A recent project had her translating Dutch letters from the Van Buren family collection.
Wendy Miranda (French major with German minor, 2019) taught for a year with the TAPIF program in France and is currently completing her MA in French at NYU.
Tayllor Cunningham* (Animation/Illustration; German 2019) is a freelance concept artist.
Ben Hernandez (German, 2016) is currently a Student Naval Flight Officer and is completing flight school with the Navy. His squadron shares a hangar with the German Air Force and he interacts with German officers regularly.
Alexandra Hoffmann (German and Marketing, 2016) worked as Manager of Workforce Development at the German American Chamber of Commerce in NYC and in 2021 became the Associate Director of the Center of Workforce Development at County College of Morris.
Lisa Koellmann (German, 2016) is currently a full-time teacher of German in Chatham Middle School. She is also principal of the German School of Union County.
Christine Kwon* (German and Piano Performance, 2016) studied Piano Performance at the University of Vienna and harpsichord performance at the Koninklijk Conservatorium in The Netherlands. She is a harpsichordist in The Hague in The Netherlands.
Meghan Marino* (German and Communications, 2016) in 2019-2020 did a Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship in Bonn. She worked as a communications specialist in the administration of the Department of Modern Languages at Carnegie Mellon University and is currently an Assistant Field Marketing Manager at Wiley, which has 60+ global offices, including three in Germany, where she hopes to spend time soon! Meghan says, “check out their job openings.”
Jon Standish (German, 2016) is working for the National Parks Service in North Dakota, where he speaks to German tourists on a daily basis. In Spring 2019, he spent several weeks backpacking to the Alps, Munich, Bonn, Düsseldorf, Koblenz, and more of Germany.
Zak Zerby (German and Linguistics, 2016) completed his MA in Linguistics at Montclair State, where he has been hired as an adjunct professor teaching linguistics courses.
Ryan Cathcart* (Accounting German Minor, 2015) received his first Accounting position at the NJ offices of the German chemical giant BASF based on his German skills. He now has his CPA and enjoys running marathons.
Wendy Timmons* (German and Studio Art, 2015) completed her MA in German Studies at the University of Maryland in 2018 and is currently pursuing her Ph.D. in German Studies at Vanderbilt University (expected graduation 2023), with a specialty in German film, gender studies, and 20th-century German culture. In 2020 and 2021, Wendy and Dr. LaFountain team-taught workshops on gender inclusion in the foreign language classroom at the Foreign Language Educators of NJ teaching conference.
*Won the full-ride Sister-City Scholarship to study in Graz for an academic year.